..A Freeper Vet goes to the Vietnam Wall..

"ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer

[ALOHA RONNIE]

NEVER FORGET

...Over Veterans Day Weekend each year we surviving Veterans of the 1st Major Battle of the Vietnam War held in the Valley of Death that was the IA DRANG of 1965...

...greet the dawn's early light of a beautiful Sunday morning standing at the 3rd Panel of the Vietnam Wall. We go there, under the fresh shadow of the Washington Monument, to pay honor to our fallen U.S. 7th Cavalry Brothers who fell forever in that Valley of Death on behalf of the FREEDOM of Others.

...Though no exception, this year's Veterans Day Weekend in Washington, D.C. was truly unforgettable.

...Fellow IA DRANG Veteran and War Correspondent JOSEPH GALLOWAY, the only civilian who has been awarded a Bronze Star for Valor, writes about our IA DRANG Alumni Conference Weekend and of our obligation drawing us there for our fallen Brothers each year in his outstanding Kight-Ridder Article titled:

..'Remembering brothers on Veterans Day'

...A Link to this outstanding Article follows.

...Present and future U.S. 7th Cavalry Congressional Medal of Honor Recipiants stand side by side with the rest of us former U.S. 7th Cavalry SkyTroopers in unabashed gratitude at The Vietnam Wall to those who gave all they had long ago so that others may live in FREEDOM.

...This year's IA DRANG Alumni Conference Dinner Keynote Speaker was fellow IA DRANG Veteran JACK SMITH, now a retired ABC News Correspondent, who was wounded 4 times in the IA DRANG Valley 38 years ago. JACK SMITH's father was ABC News TV Anchorman HOWARD K. SMITH, the most honest of all American TV Anchormen reporting about our Fight for Freedom during the Vietnam War. This as opposed to former CBS News TV Anchorman WALTER CRONKITE ...who was lying to us on TV for the other side, our Communist Terrorist Enemy.

...JACK SMITH now finds himself in another fight for his life ...in a private war with Pancreatic Cancer.

...How profound it is to see today's Communist Vietnam, under threat from Terrorist Attacks and the encroaching Power of Communist China emerging all over East Asia, move closer to America for its own protection in a new Time of War. And to see an America reaching out to Communist Vietnam for exactly the same reasons..!!! It's a new World.

...Who would have thought so long ago in a land that was so very far away that we would live long enough to see this new world come our way back when...

.."WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE and YOUNG"..?

Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Vet-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965

NEVER FORGET

[PISANO]

ALOHA RONNIE..........THANKS for the update, AND THANK YOU and your fellow 7th Calvary brothers who NEVER FORGET those who paid the ULTIMATE PRICE for FREEDOM that day in (IA DRANG) the Valley of Death!

[Joy Angela]

Thanks for the link!

>>>
'CLINTON PLANNED TO USE TERRORISM TO REGAIN WHITE HOUSE'

http://www.jrnyquist.com/roberts_2003_1113.htm

[Joy Angela]

You are blowing me away.

Thank you for bringing the
spirit home from Washington D.C.
and sharing it here.

*Those Freedom Fighters of 1776
just didn't know what they started.
(Or did they?)

Glory to the First Freedom Fighter
freed from the shackles of death,
who inspires and liberates all those
to follow!

Jesus Christ.

How His spirit lives on!

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...None other than an ICON Productions Staffer sat down in the seat next to me in Washington, D.C. on the way home to the Left Coast Sunday night.

...What a way to confirm that the correct title of MEL GIBSON's next Masterpiece is:

.."The Passion of CHRIST"..

...T'was all in GOD's Plan, 4-Sure.

[Joy Angela]

Now you've knocked me down! :)

Hey, do you think this could
really mean....

Ms. H will not run/or lose in 2004?

The Heavens are opening!

[cowgirlcutie]

My husband and I went to the Viet Nam Wall this past spring. I didn't expect the reaction I had. I was a girl in Jr. High at the height of the war. I prayed EVERYNIGHT for our soldiers. If I missed a night, I felt guilty. I would lie in my nice bed at night and think of what horrors our soldiers must be enduring on the other side of the world, while I lay there in my cozy bed. The thought of it made me cry more than once. When my husband and I went to the Wall for the first time, it brought it all back and I cried about it for the first time in years. But while I cried at the sorrow over all of those names there and the memory of a girl who cried at night thinking about our young people over there fighting for our country, I now cried with pride at these brave, selfless people. God Bless you all.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

...GOD does indeed work His Miracles in very Loving Ways, does He not..?

[cowgirlcutie]

He definitely does! To be there and feel the spirit of all of those young people is more awesome than anyone could ever describe.

[Rebeleye]

May God bless you Ronnie and all those who fought at Landing Zone X Ray and Albany! May we as a nation never forget the sacrifices of those who served and died in the Ia Drang Valley and their families.

[Professional Engineer]

Thanks for the link, I missed this one last Veteran's Day. From my own trip to The Wall in 1992:

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.


What a stunner of a Vietnam Wall Photo.
I appreciate your sharnig it, so obviously personal to you.

GARRY OWEN, Sir.

.

[Professional Engineer]

The name of a cousin is in this photo. I had only intended to get a picture of his name, it turned into something much more. I treasure this more as the years go by.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.


GOD does indeed seem to work His Miracles in some very Loving ways..?


.

[timydnuc]

Thank you, and thank "them". A poignant dedication in deed.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

bttt

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

After we were fooled into abandoning the Free People of South Vietnam, minus our funding for the weapons to fight for their own Freedom with, to their fate at the hands of the heavily Soviet funded invaders from the North...

...there was a...


"JOURNEY from the FALL"


See:


Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education Camp

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts


...and weep.

.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

The Words:

http://www.Freerepublic.com/~ALOHARONNIE


The Pictures:

http://www.Freerepublic.com/~JLO


The Thread:

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts

[JLO]

http://www.virtualwall.org/

Can search by name, city, state, date, etc. I think they are all listed.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

On: http://www.virtualwall.org

See: TOM METSKER

After going face down on BRUCE CRANDALL's Huey at the IA DRANG Valley's Landing Zone X-Ray, when shot in the back by a sniper, I helped pull his body off at Landing Zone Falcon 3 air minutes later.

METSKER's then 4 year old daughter back home, Cartherine, later bacame the wife of IA DRANG-1965 Veteran JOE GALLOWAY after she assisted him on research for his writing of 'WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE..& YOUNG' in the 1990's.

They are now divorced.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!